Hyderabad: The BRS government then failed to execute the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP) during the nine years it was in power. All that it did was to create a buffer zone around the Charminar with cobblestones and granite in 2018.
Since then there was no major progress, and the purpose of creating a buffer zone was also lost as hawkers were not assigned with an exclusive area to run their business. Hydraulic bollards were placed to mark buffer zones but were later removed.
Major works to include the precinct into a world-class tourist destination by deploying electrical autorickshaws, relocating hawkers to the two pedestrian bridges – one at Salar Jung Museum and another near Nayapul — did not take off. Another major element of the project, construction of the multi-level parking lot, also did not commence.
Despite sanction of funds, junkets to foreign countries and to other Indian states, works related to CPP merely remained on paper. While the earlier state government has once proposed to develop it on lines with Golden Temple in Amritsar, later they wanted to develop it like heritage sites in Istanbul but both these works did not even commence.
Suddenly in 2022, after repeated failed attempts, the BRS government renamed the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project (CPP) to Charminar Historical Precinct Revitalisation Plan.
Under this, the Sardar Mahal, once the GHMC south zone office, was proposed to be converted into a museum. This also did not take off. The earlier BRS government suddenly in 2022 stated that the project had failed because it lacked social and economic revitalisation strategies and that its revitalisation plan had all the missing elements of CPP. On the ground, little has changed.
